Heigh-Ho, Heigh-Ho...

     ...It's off to doc-in-a-box I go....

     Tam and I walked over to Twenty Tap for lunch yesterday, after spending the actual noontide at the range -- a work day for her, a vacation for me, and it's still  gratifying to send a couple hundred rounds into the ten-ring at seven yards while a big guy with a big gun in the next lane struggles to keep 'em on the paper at fifteen feet.

     (Hey, d00d?  Slow down; sure, you're not that fast, but it's still too quick for now.  Use the sights.  And your grip, gosh, it was cute when Charlie's Angels held guns that way but, really, they're actresses, not shooting instructors.  As for your flinch, I can tell you all day that a full-sized 9mm hasn't much recoil but you may want to start over with something smaller until you believe so in your heart.) 

     But maybe I should be more humble; my own shooting came to a precipitate stop when one of the bucket'o'22s decided to blow its head clean off, with a more-than-usual bang and a whole lot of smoke trailing out from the gun around the misfed next cartridge.  Too hot?  Out of battery?  Defective brass?  I'm not sure, being as my attention was downrange at the time; I dropped the magazine, cleared the misfeed, laid the gun down and prised out the battered circle of brass, thought a bit and pushed the .22 BoreSnake from my cleaning kit through the barrel with a few drops of BreakFree on it.  The bore was clear and clean enough, so I got back into it for fifty or sixty more.  (Which is the other part.  Shooting is like writing: do it a lot, do it often, do it right, and you may, eventually, not suck at it so much.)

     Then off to lunch and a huge one for me, fries and a Spanish Tartine, a kind of open-faced salad on crusty bread, way more filling that you'd think, thanks to nice heirloom tomatoes and olive tapenade.  I walked back early, leaving Tam working on an article in her office-away-from-the-office, realized I was sleepy and dizzy, and was in bed before she arrived home some time later.  I woke for a bit and she pointed out my hearing was even worse than usual, and by then I was very dizzy and the earache/headache that's been bothering me for days was going full bore.  (Shooting usually clears up my headaches -- maybe it's the earplugs?  The overpressure air?)  After that chat, I slept something over twelve hours and this morning, I think I'd better see what the doc-in-a-box has to say.